「Broken Compass」White Room

Chapter 12

"What did you do? Snap it out of existence?" Abel asks, dropping his arms to his sides.

"I used my resources to smash it into the ground. You should've seen it. The bones practically crumbled like puzzle pieces—but its flesh stayed intact."

"Gross, he didn't ask for details," Fleur interjects with a disgusted grimace.

"Sorry, my dear," Juno snickers, reaching for her hair to ruffle it.

She glanced at Hoku, greeting him with a gentle smile.

"I see you found your way. Finally, decide that exploring isn't gonna save your life?"

Hoku stared down at his boots.

"I'm just messing with you, kid. Though please take me seriously when I tell you that more things will be better as mysteries than things that are not."

"Sorry," he finally said.

Juno nods, assuring him, then veers her head at something behind them.

"I need to speak with someone else for a moment," she said, frowning slightly. "In the meantime, if you haven't already, gather the names. We should have spare supplies; see if Yu-ze or Fleur can tend to your head wound."

"Wait—" Juno dashed toward Li, causing his words to falter as he narrowed his gaze.

The twins and Mars moved behind him, their voices fading.

The dry rustle of grass grew louder, and Hoku took a few steps, stopping in front of the man in black.

"She's right," he said. "Every discovery comes with a cost. Anything we know wasn't meant to be known. You're not supposed to understand this universe. If you do... you'll be reset."

Hoku froze, his demeanor hardening as his pupils contracted.

How was he supposed to move forward when everyone around him seemed to know more?

Yu-ze's hand landed on his shoulder, warmth cutting through the cold rush in his veins.

Sweat pelts atop his forehead.

"Let's discuss another subject for now. Surely, you must be somewhat curious about the guests you've been stranded with. I wield limited knowledge of their backgrounds, but if it has to do with names and habits, then my expanse of understanding will go beyond the very minimum."

Hoku brushes his clammy fingertips over his robe.

He swallows, then asks, "What is your name?" 

"Yu-ze Yong," he replies, before gesturing his hand in front of him to continue walking.

Hoku complies and walks with him.

Yu-ze doesn't talk.

Hoku glances around, then spots Li.

He appeared intently focused on the sword, polishing the green blade with the brown fabric torn from Hoku's arm.

The others lingered near Juno, curious about where she had been.

From a distance, Hoku notes the change in her demeanor.

She appeared Dejected, just as she had during their first encounter.

Li shows little interest, with Juno Mirai standing quietly by his side.

It's not hard to understand why she's suddenly withdrawn, despite her earlier ease with the twins.

"Does Juno usually stick so close to him?"

Yu-ze raises his eyebrows before peering over his shoulder. "Li is essentially her family."

Naturally, it was not what Hoku had been expecting.

"Are they distant relatives?"

"They aren't related. It's more like a mentor and scholar alliance. She confides in his instructions. In the past, however, she regarded him as family."

Hoku scratches his head and continues, "Honestly, I thought there was a small chance no one liked him."

Yu-ze chuckles, slowing to a finish in front of another tree stump.

"What about yourself?" Hoku asks.

"What about myself?" Yu-ze deflects the question.

"You mentioned having little information about their pasts, but does that also imply yourself?"

Yu-ze lowers himself next to the tree stump.

For a moment, something slips from under his mantle, but he adjusts it quickly.

Hoku deliberately avoids looking at it for too long.

'It looks too slender to be a sword.'

Yu-ze pats the smooth surface of the stump.

Hoku didn't object and accepted it quietly.

Yu-ze's hand slipped beneath his mantle again, retrieving a small, brown cotton bag. 

With both hands, he loosened the drawstring, allowing its contents to spill forth. 

Hoku's gaze swept over the items: grayish, unraveling bandages; a few silver pins; and three diminutive vials containing various ground herbs. 

After selecting the bandages and pins, Yu-ze rose to his feet, preparing to pose another question to Hoku.

"Tell me, Hoku, what specifically are you asking me about?"

His brows furrow,

'Did he misinterpret my wording?'

Before Hoku could rephrase his question, Yu-ze's voice interrupted.

"My only memories outside this sequel are of a white room, with other children. I might be wrong, or confusing it with something else, but I recall my last moment in your world with the sounds of heavy rain and gunfire."

'A white room? …Like a hospital?'

Yu-ze stepped behind Hoku, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

 "Use your sleeve to wipe the blood from your face, then pull your bangs back so I can bandage your head before it worsens."

Hoku nodded, swiftly scrubbing the side of his neck and cheek with his sleeve before using the same hand to pull back his hair.

The painful throbs had thankfully dissipated.

"If that's the case, maybe we're here due to a shared custom," Hoku mused, leaning back to scrutinize Yu-ze's expression for any sign of recognition.

However, Yu-ze's brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Hoku sighed, then cleared his throat.

"My earliest memory is also of a white room," he admitted. "But I don't recall seeing children. How old are you, anyway? There's no way you're a child."

Yu-ze chuckled softly, securing the final pins at the back of Hoku's head. Stepping away, he settled back onto the grass. 

Hoku's fingers traced the bandage, gently probing the wound at the back of his head.

"You're drawing comparisons," Yu-ze observed, reclining until his shoulder blades rested against the tree stump. "But I assure you, we're not speaking of the same place. If we were, you'd have arrived much sooner."

 His posture relaxed, the grass providing a soft cushion beneath him.

Hoku raised an eyebrow. "And you'd know that how? You claim to have certainty about details that only come to you in pieces."

Yu-ze exhaled, drawing one knee closer to his chest.

"I know because it's impossible," he said. "I only recall that room in mimicked dreams. And you can't dream in this place. But it's possible for your subconscious to unearth fragments of long-term memory, then rearrange them in a state of dormancy."

"That doesn't explain why I couldn't be connected to your dreams—or memories."

Hoku folded his hands, pressing his knuckles into his lap.

"I have already explained," Yu-ze said. "If you were like the rest of us, then 'Hoku' would have been here long before present. You remember waking in a white room. I—" He paused, eyes drifting shut. "—remember escaping from it."

Hoku studied his expression. Despite the heft of his words, Yu-ze remained composed.

"How… Did you get here?"

Yu-ze didn't respond immediately.

Hoku wavered, communicating further, and cautioned himself against going too far. 

Yu-ze might deem he'd already said enough, losing patience, or even growing indifferent.

Hoku lowered his chin, shaking his head. 

'I'm overthinking. I barely know this man, let alone what troubles him.'

"Here as in the forest, or here as in the timestream?"

Hoku glanced over. The answer should have been obvious. But the way Yu-ze framed the question puzzled him.

'I thought I was standing in the timestream… but is it separate from the forest?'

"The forest, I suppose," he said at last. "Though I was under the impression that it was the timestream."

Suddenly, a different voice spoke.

"This isn't a forest."

Hoku turned, promptly recognizing their presence.

Li had appeared quietly, slipping into the conversation unnoticed.

Juno stood beside him, gripping a corner of his mantle, as if to hold him back.

Hoku frowned.

"…Forgive me," he said, his tone measured. "I meant nucleus, since forests have trees, right? But this doesn't resemble the organelle inside a cell either."

Li spared him a disinterested glance before redirecting his gaze.

"Flaunting intelligence doesn't make you any more aware of the universe you inhabit," he said. 

"If this were a typical forest, it wouldn't exist in this sweetened universe. It's a burial nest of monsters that have been doomed to endless resurrection. Fortunately, we don't live here. We scavenge it for scraps."

"A nest—?"

"As for survival in the timestream," Li continued, his voice edged with bitterness, "it depends on the mantra we assume before reaching the next destination."

He said nothing further and exhaled quietly.

He took a moment to examine Li's appearance.

His features were striking. Pale hair, nearly white in the sunlight. Almond-shaped eyes with a subtle tilt as the corners, and jade irises standing in sharp contrast to the darkened skin beneath them. The shades were rather contradictory—making him seem vivid, as something less visible around him remained lifeless.

Maybe it wasn't just his gaze, but what lay concealed behind it.

For some reason, Hoku felt as if he had seen him before.

Am I losing my mind? Mistaking a stranger for someone I know? He pressed his lips into a line.

"If you have a question, ask," Li said indifferently. "Don't cower and belittle yourself."

Hoku's fingers twitched as he swallowed. "What are the resources for? They must be vital if they bring you to a place like this."

"Every part of this universe is deadly," Li replied. "We gather raw materials from the Recesses of Life to begin forging an elixir. For you, it can be understood as a weapon—the only energy capable of killing the inhabitants."

A chill crept over Hoku's skin. His palms warmed, but he only pressed his fingers harder into them.

He narrowly detected the rustling beside him before Yu-ze finally spoke again.

"A thoughtform convinces the timelines—an intricate system woven from pure energy—that the weapons exist. But they don't. Once you leave the stream, they become useless."

Hoku drew a sudden breath, looking toward him.

"The same applies to the universe before this one," Yu-ze continued. "Even the most intricate machinery becomes nothing more than an object the moment it leaves the foundation that sustains it."

"Foundation," Hoku repeated. "Are you talking about humans? The Humans that create machines?"

"Yes," Yu-ze confirmed. "That's why that universe can exist within a solar system. A world among many, orbiting a star. But the timestream is different. It's not a universe—it's chaos. A loom of separate worlds, all entangled. Instead of planets orbiting a sun, there are threads splitting around a central stream."

'A failed universe,' Hoku thought. 'A world that loops around itself because there's nothing to anchor it.'

'But if all of this was true… then where did that leave me? I had simply woken up without memories, while Yu-ze claimed he and the others had been fleeing from that inevitability."

Hoku's thoughts drifted aimlessly, but before long, they all returned to the same realization—one he had come to again and again over the years.

'Something happened before my memories dissolved. I can't remember, but the gap is too purposeful to be nothing.'

The Memoir Chapter 9

[This section has no objective]

Rule 14

Memories are a concept derived from creation. It is impossible to forge memories in the sequel and equally impossible to reserve them from another universe. Any living being with such ability will be targeted by the designated monstrous lifeforms inhabiting the timestream.

Do not speak of a past that has never existed. There is only what remains in your presence.

-The Memoir Chapter 9 end-

The Memoir Chapter 10

dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream do not dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream dream

Ever.​​

-The Memoir Chapter 10 end-